Dr Bryce Wilkinson: The demise of a Wellington icon

Minister Chris Bishop has swung his ministerial wrecking ball at Wellington. He will strip the Gordon Wilson Flats of its heritage protection. At last, the bulldozers can begin.

What a loss to world culture this will be. Forget Paris, Cairo or Rome. For over a decade Wellington has been conserving its own decaying monument to another time.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Ministry of Regulation has been taken over by Career Regulators.....

How come the new Ministry of Regulation has been taken over by Career Regulators, Mr Seymour?

America is super excited about the new Department of Government Efficiency that is being set up, headed by Elon Musk and Vivak Ramaswamy. We all know Musk - his achievement was launching a space program at about 1% the cost of NASA's space program. What had gone wrong at NASA? It had turned into a gigantic bureaucracy. As for Ramaswamy, he worked as an investment partner at a hedge fund before founding Roivant Sciences and Investment firm, Strive Asset Management. His net worth is $960 million. These guys clearly know how to work efficiently and minimize overheads. They know the cost of red-tape.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Commission for Government Efficiency...

ACT Leader Seymour's Department of Regulation is Stalling. Elon Musk has advice: re-purpose it & rename it "The Commission for Government Efficiency"

Subjecting government regulation to cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is important and a long-held crusade of ours here at this Blog. However, given how technical it is, the best way to implement CBA is through a dedicated office within the NZ Treasury. Our Treasury already has staffers assigned to this task. That group should simply be greatly expanded.

Kerre Woodham: How necessary are resource consents?

Let's start with the announcement yesterday from Chris Bishop allowing people to build small granny flats without requiring consent. It's followed through, the coalition government, on its promise to cut red tape around the resource consent process. The announcement was made yesterday, and they said it will be easier for people to put a granny flat in their backyard without having to go through the hoohah of a costly consent process.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 13/6/24

Govt sets about cutting red tape to promote food and fibre exports – and to enable us to pick up the pace on the road

The headline on a press statement posted on the government’s official website today suggested something significant had been decided for the country’s farmers, growers and fishers.

It declared:

Derek Mackie: Don't judge a book by its library data system

Most of us would agree that New Zealand has lost its mojo over the past 6 years and is an unhappier and more divisive place. 

We struggle to make a single thing on time and to budget anymore, other than a coffee, and the nation seems to be a dreary shadow of its former self. The state of our roads and the ever-present roadworks and traffic cones are a depressing symbol of our productive and social malaise. 

 I’m hoping our new Coalition government will turn things around and, to be fair, it’s still early days. Indeed, there have been lots of encouraging announcements of cancelled, race-riddled Labour policies like Three Waters and the Maori Health Authority. 

However, the Coalition's much trumpeted new Fast Track Approvals Bill has astoundingly taken a leaf out of Labour’s book and given iwi guaranteed representation on the “expert panels”. 

What the hell’s that all about? It's not what we voted for, or what the Coalition agreements assured us would happen. 

So, let’s hope the Coalition doesn't follow Labour’s submissions policy as well, and disregards any that criticise this blatantly racist provision 

Bruce Cotterill: Sir Russell Coutts is right

Sir Russell Coutts is right - Dolphin drama shows we're drowning in red tape

The comments of Sir Russell Coutts in the aftermath of the cancellation of racing on day one of SailGP in Lyttleton should serve as a warning to our country.

For far too long we have had our otherwise massive potential cut down by minority interest groups. People striving for publicity for the narrow little lens through which they see the world and people intent on protecting their own interests. These people are everywhere in this country.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: PM Luxon & Seymour forgot their own commitment to cost-benefit analysis

PM Luxon & Seymour forgot their own commitment to cost-benefit analysis when talking about the SailGP-Hector Dolphin Furore

A nice feature of NZ is that, in spite of our problems, whether they be homelessness, crime, or inflation, the fate of stranded whales or endangered Hector dolphins awakes our passions often more than tiresome political & economic debates.